Writer. Maker. Reader.

Do you crave Adventure?

One of the things that Natalie Goldberg said in Writing Down the Bones that I thought was interesting was that she argued that there are two kinds of writers:
1. the kind that stay at home (or in one place)
2. and the kind that crave adventure

I definitely fall into the second category. I have an almost incessant itch to see or do something new and different. I get so exhausted by the same old routine and places. I don’t necessarily need fancy or expensive–I just need new experiences constantly. I was itching really bad last week so I was thrilled that on Saturday we had a job to do that involved new things: we had to go to the farm, pick up the camper, and pull it to an RV place to get some repairs done. Doesn’t sound very thrilling, does it, but we managed to be child-free and that meant that we could stop off along the way, if something tugged at me. And of course, we did.
I saw this old building from the road the last time we drove through Dublin so this time I yelled, “stop!” Turns out, it was a gristmill built in 1880. The front was all locked up but when I went around back, I found that the back was open and I could poke my head in and see the crank that drove the grinding stone. I was tempted to crawl in but my husband, much less interested in new things, held me back. I know it’s private property but I’d have been kind. Really!

Here’s what the inscription on the Texas Historical Marker says:
“Stonemasons Joe E. Bishop, “Rocky” Davis, and “Old Frank” Hamilton built this 2-story native stone mill for William T. Miller (1846-1936) in 1882. Steam power was used to grind grain here until a crude oil engine was installed (1918). The grist mill was converted to feed production after W. M. Wright and his son-in-law, Ted C. Robbins, purchased it in 1926. In 1974 Robbins and his wife gave the structure to the Dublin Historical Society as a museum for W. M. Wright Historical Park.”